You know what? Here's what I don't get about the American left. In North Korea we're dealing with a tinpot dictator with a woefully out-of-date and antiquated 1970s era military who may or may not have developed 1, 5, maybe 15 atomic bombs that aren't much more powerful than the ones we dropped on Japan (roughly speaking) and which aren't even deployable yet. So President Trump takes a hard line with the North Korean dictator, talks tough, throws down a few social media shitpoasts, and the entire American Left in the political realm, media, academia lose their collective minds, barking and shitting themselves like a Pavlovian experiment on dogs.
Oh noes! Trump is a war monger! He's going to get us into a nuclear war with North Korea. What will the Chinese say? What will the Russians say? Oh noes, the Chinese and Russians issued STERN warnings over not acting unilaterally against this whacked out tinpot hermit who has so many sanctions against his country has to import porn on the black market from Singapore so he can jerk off to something each night.
Counterpose this with the response from the White House against Russia which has been measured, but incrementally tougher, but still respectful because the last time I checked, Russia has the largest God damn nuclear weapons arsenal in the world at 7,000
https://www.armscontrol.org/factsheets/Nuclearweaponswhohaswhat
Of those, something like 1,500 are still operational with 800 deployed.
http://www.nti.org/learn/countries/russia/nuclear/
Those aren't Cold War numbers, but still enough to wipeout - what - 100 million? 200 million people? I guess maybe the President should have a somewhat measured and nuanced response when dealing with another nuclear power which also has a sizable - albeit still obsolete - conventional military.
What does General mcaffrey want President Trump to do? Fly a B-52 to Russia and ride a nuke onto the Kremlin himself?

Not really. Normally one would expect a more reasoned, and mature response from a four star general. But then again, this guy was part of the Clinton Administration once upon a time.
So the retired general is bashing Trump over his response to the alleged Russian nerve agent attack in Great Britain.
Per CNN.
https://www.cnn.com/2018/03/15/politics/donald-trump-russia-nerve-agent-attack/index.html
"It looks like it," Trump said of whether Russia was behind the attack. "I spoke with the Prime Minister and we are in deep discussions. A very sad situation."
He added: "It certainly looks like the Russians were behind it. Something that should never, ever happen, and we are taking it very seriously, as I think are many others."
Per CBS
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/donald-trump-britain-russia-novichok-nerve-agent-attack-ex-spy-sergei-skripal/
The leaders of the United States, France, Germany and Britain have issued a joint statement blaming Russia for the nerve agent attack on former spy Sergei Skripal in the English city of Salisbury. In a rare joint statement, President Donald Trump, President Emmanual Macron, Chancellor Angela Merkel and Prime Minister Theresa May said Thursday there was "no plausible alternative explanation" to Russian responsibility in the March 4 attack in England.
And the Joint Statement from said countries.
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/salisbury-attack-joint-statement-from-the-leaders-of-france-germany-the-united-states-and-the-united-kingdom
Trump's US Ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, condemned the attack.
https://www.cnn.com/2018/03/14/politics/nikki-haley-russia-spy-poisoning/index.html
...
I'm not sure what the retired general is expecting President Trump to do at this stage of the game when UK police haven't even confirmed who was responsible for the attack. Or at least they have released that info to the public. And it's not like Trump hasn't thumbed his nose at the Russkies multiple times already in the past year and two months.
Trump knocked out 1/4 of the Syrian Air Force over allegation that the Assad regime used nerve gas on rebels.
A few weeks ago, the US military rained hellfire and destruction on a bunch of Russian mercs and their Syrian Army pals after they got a bit pushy around some of Special Forces and the valiant freedom fighters we're assisting there.
Trump has gone against Russian wishes by establishing and embassy in Jerusalem.
Trump has gone against Russian wishes by taking apart the Iran Deal.
Trump has gone against Russian wishes by talking tough to North Korea's dictator.
Trump has imposed sanctions against several Russian oligarchs over election meddling and cyber attacks.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/15/us/politics/trump-russia-sanctions.html?mtrref=www.google.com&gwh=156300863A1A21266F6E16F56812A0B6&gwt=pay
But of course General Barry mcaffrey is right and Trump is totes in Putin's pocket.

Not everyone is appreciative of mustelids...
Alaskans make new push to kill more sea otters, saying they’re decimating Southeast shellfish
https://www.adn.com/politics/2018/03/17/alaskans-make-new-push-to-kill-more-sea-otters-saying-theyre-decimating-southeast-shellfish/
"Southeast Alaska's clams, urchins and crabs have fueled lucrative fishing industries and fed hungry families for decades.
They also feed sea otters.''
And now, that human dependence on shellfish is clashing anew with a successful, state-sponsored restoration program that brought the marine mammals' population back from near extinction a century ago.
The long-running conflict between otter conservation and Southeast fishermen and tribal groups has drawn new attention this year. State lawmakers and other policymakers have drafted letters asking the Trump administration and a Republican-controlled Congress to loosen federal otter protections, and to grant local managers more power to cull the animals and leave more urchins, clams, crab and sea cucumbers for humans."
...
"The roots of the present conflict reach back to the mid-18th century, when Russian explorers found otters in the Aleutian Islands. The Russians harvested thousands of otters a year, selling their furs largely to Chinese markets.
By 1900, there were small numbers of otters left in just 13 places in Russia, Alaska and California. An international treaty in 1911 allowed some populations to rebound, but into the 1950s, they were gone from Alaska's Southeast coast.
In the 1960s, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game began a transplant program to a half-dozen Southeast sites. The idea, Estes said, was both to restore the species to its former habitat and to give residents opportunities to sell furs.
The 400 otters came mostly from Amchitka Island in the Aleutians, where the federal government was doing underground nuclear tests."
TLDR: It's all the fault of the Russians.

[Collimatrix here, I'm splitting this off and doing something I should have done a long time ago, which is have a thread dedicated to terror attacks and active shooters. News updates, professional analysis, that sort of thing. I know that these events are always very emotional and shocking, but let's try to keep it reasonable and level-headed.
AEarly reports are usually godawful wrong. The whole truth may not come out for months. Anyone who tries to make a political point before the blood has congealed is a jackass.]
So apparently there was a mass shooting in Las Vegas on the strip that just happened.
We'll have to wait until useful information begins to trickle in and for 24-48 hours to go by before the false reports get corrected.
Edit: The shaky mobile phone cam footage "sounds" kind of like automatic weapons fire. That is just a wild guess on my part. See second line.

Washington video game addict survives samurai sword attack from crazy, green-haired girlfriend
http://www.oregonlive.com/clark-county/index.ssf/2018/03/boyfriend_who_survived_samurai.html
"I was just so proud for beating this samurai wannabe crazy lady with hate in her heart," Lovell, 29, told The Oregonian/OregonLive in a Facebook message exchange Wednesday. "I've been preparing my whole life for something like this."
...
After the lights went out, Javier said she retrieved he samurai sword - then brought it down on her boyfriend, according to a probable cause affidavit.
Lovell said he woke up to being attacked by Javier. His instincts kicked in, and he drew on a lifetime of Kung Fu films and martial arts training.
"I was able to wing chun my way to survival," Lovell said referring to a traditional form of Chinese martial art that focuses on close-range combat.
Eventually he got her into a bear hug.
"I saw the look in her eyes, and it scared the living poop out of me," he said. "I told her I loved her, and she was killing me. She needed to call police, or I was going to die."

Denisovan Girls Are Easy
https://www.newscientist.com/article/2163910-our-ancestors-mated-with-the-mystery-denisovan-people-twice/
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/humans-bred-denisovan-species-evolution-neanderthals-homo-sapiens-dna-harvard-university-study-a8258586.html
In addition to getting it on with neanderthals, our human ancestors got it on with other "mysterious species".

Useful to the discussion. A Pew Research study on the rate at which police officers fire their weapons. It's worth an entire read.
http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/02/08/a-closer-look-at-police-officers-who-have-fired-their-weapon-on-duty/
Only 27 percent of LEOs have EVER fired their weapons in the line of duty over their entire career.
Other take aways are that those who do fire their weapons tend to be white, male, and in favor of gun rights although only by a slight margin. They also tend to be military veterans and work in larger cities.
Those numbers assault weapons are notable considering that just over 1 in 4 officers favor banning them. 2/3s of cops oppose banning them.
http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/01/23/police-public-differ-on-key-issues-but-align-on-others/

Nah, I'm just being a grump about the whole bigger picture of cinema and the absolute shit running down the legs of Hollywood these days.
Here's what's in theaters and what's coming soon.
http://www.imdb.com/movies-in-theaters/?ref_=nv_mv_inth_1
http://www.imdb.com/movies-coming-soon/?ref_=nv_mv_cs_4
There is nothing even approaching original content with the sequels, prequels, comic book movies, reboots, and remakes that are being churned out.

HAHN: That wicked BOMKE was in my Institute.
HARTECK: I have never come across such a fantastic liar.
HAHN: That man came to me in 1938 when the non-aryan Fraulein MEITNER was still there – it wasn't easy to keep her in my Institute. I will never forget how BOMKE came to us and told me that he was being persecuted by the State because he was not a Nazi. We took him on and afterwards we found out that he was an old fighting member of the Party.
WEIZSÄCKER: Then we might speak of our "BOMKE-damaged" Institutes. (Laughter).
@Collimatrix has a new muse...

Do Disney, in its infinite wisdom, decides to address the fans' concern over Rey obtaining so many Force skills without any training by explaining that she has an entirely new and different and never before mentioned Force skill that no one has ever heard before that she just happens to possess and uses with zero consequences.
Un-fucking-believable.
Hollywood has degraded to the point where it is fundamentally incapable of making a good Star Wars movie.
Worse, Hollywood has degraded to the point where it is unaware and oblivious of the fact that it is fundamentally incapable of making a good Star Wars movie.

And we're getting a woman CIA director.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/02/us/politics/cia-deputy-director-gina-haspel-torture-thailand.html
The New York Times sure is wringing its hands over this which means Trump must be on the right tack.